Montana Budget Director Dan Villa, Department of Commerce Director Pam Haxby-Cote, Department of Public Health and Human Services Sheila Hogan and Chief Legal Counsel for Commerce Marty Tuttle were all in Boulder August 30 for a meeting about the Boulder Development Fund.
The $50,000 fund was approved in the 2017 Montana Legislature to assist Boulder with mitigating the impacts of the closure of the Montana Developmental Center.
The goal of last week’s meeting was to work out the process by which the city would be able to use the money. Reviewing a list of potential expenditures to improve Boul- der’s economy, a list presented to legislators during the session, Villa said some of the items would be tough to justify as a use for the money. For instance, growth policies for both the city and the county, as well as capital, improvement plans are both really “normal governmental operations” that should be done as part of the normal business of the city and county, he said. “Every other community in the state is expected to go through this process regardless of any impact,” he said.
